Netflix geoblocking in Canada 'a game of whack-a-mole'

Looking for Louie? Seeking more Scandal? If you're among the estimated 1.92 million Canadians who may beillegally streaming TV shows meant solely for the U.S. Netflix market, rest easy.

For the most part, your stealth viewing tactics should allow you to stream on.

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Amid reports that Netflix was cracking down on online proxy services that allow foreign-based viewers to vault geofences, even the streaming company admits that trying to block virtual private networks (VPN) is next to impossible.

"DetectingVPNusage is like playing a game of whack-a-mole," says Netflix spokesman Cliff Edwards. "By their very nature, it's difficult to tell how many people are bypassinggeofilters."

A Media Technology Monitor poll of 2,002 anglophone Canadians found that 32 per cent subscribe to Netflix. Of those respondents, one-third said they had figured out how to useVPN,domain-name hosting (DNS) or proxy services, which can fake their locations in order to make them appear as if they are accessing web content from another country.

"When you do the numbers, that's 10 percent of all anglophone Canadians affected by this," said David Christopher, a spokesperson for OpenMedia.ca, which champions open internet policies.

The numbers appear less dramatic when tallied by household rather than individual user, however.

Rivals in CraveTV and Shomi

"Given there are nearly 11.5 million internet households in Canada, [Canadian households streaming U.S. Netflix] represents only six per cent of the total," saidKaanYigit, president of Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, citing data from December.

"Clearly it's an annoyance for Netflix and rights holders, but it's a single-digit number when you look at the market overall."

Netflix spokesman Edwards said the companyhas "done nothing new recently to blockVPNs," despite reports the streaming service was cracking down on online tools that trick the system.

Foreign users in recent days have neverthelesscomplainedthey were unable to view American titles using their usual IP-cloaking methods.

OpenMedia'sChristopher said it's understandable why people would turnto such measures to watch their favourite programming.

"The content on the Canadian Netflix side doesn't offer the level of choice you get on American Netflix, and that's largely the result of this very restrictive, highly concentrated media structure in Canada," Christopher said."Obtaining licenses in this system is a problem."

Netflix has some emerging Canadian players to contend with in the streaming space as well namely, Bell'sCraveTVand Rogers' and Shaw'sShomi.

It's doubtful that these rival Canadian video-streaming services would get a viewership boost from a possible Netflix crackdown onVPN, however.

Diane Wild, a vocalCanConproponent who also publishes TV, Eh?, a blog promoting Canadian television, noted that neitherShominorCraveTVwould be competition for Netflix because both services are limited to the Rogers, Bell or Shaw subscriber bases, anyway.

"For Netflix, the reasons for not having much in the Canadian library probably isn't because they don't want it," she said. "It's because within the price point they want to keep, they probably couldn't afford to pursue that stuff."

'Explosion in VPN providers'

Wild was recently able to access American Netflix titles from B.C. Even if it were blocked, though, she said she doesn't imagine it would be difficult for someone more tech-savvy to find a workaround.

"It just seems there's always going to be a new technological way to get aroundgeoblockingfrom those people who want to invest their time in it," Wild said.

OttawacybersecurityexpertRafalRohozinski believes she isprobably right.

"VPNsare becoming so much more common than a few years ago," saidRohozinski, CEO of thecyber-researchthink tankSecDevGroup. "There's been an explosion inVPNproviders."

Rohozinskilikens Netflixsgeo-fencingproblems to the "wild west" days of illegalmp3file-sharing during the1990sand early2000s.

"Its like what we had before iTunes came along. We had tons ofmp3sharing sites," he said. "It wasnt until iTunes came up with a proper business model that it became easy to do it in a legal kind of way."

WhileRohozinskiforecasts "short-term pain" from some potential blocking ofVPNservers, he expects it to be "the start to something new."

"Theyre also setting the basis for a new industry to come into being, like iTunes did," he said.

One answer could lie with the Toronto-based circumvention systemPsiphon, described by a company exec as a "freedom of information tool" that allows web surfers from heavily censored nations such as Iran and China to bypass state firewalls and access online content.

Broadcasters such as the BBC and Voice of America usePsiphon, which is free,to bring their content into places where their reportage might be routinely blocked.

KarlKathuria, CEO at Psiphon, said that if Netflix or other entertainment companies wanted help in managing legitimate distribution of content, his companywould happily help.

"However, this wont solve the problem of people finding ways of breaking geographical boundaries to get to content they feel entitled to consume," he said. "The entertainment industry needs to address that, or adjust their distribution models to account for the internet being a global platform."

As for why Netflix may have decided now to deliver a tougher tone,Kathuriaspeculated that aleaked Sony email criticizing Netflixs laxresponse toVPNsas "semi-sanctioned" piracymight offer some clues.

"The situation here is that its likely the movie studios and content providers will want to enforcegeo-boundariesfor commercial reasons," he said.

"Its up to Netflix to decide whether or not they want to meet this."